Self-awareness predicts things like effective leadership, successful relationships, and overall well-being. But what exactly is “self-awareness?”. Self-awareness is being aware of your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors while they are occurring. It also includes understanding the impact you are having on the people around you.

We’ve all been triggered at work. Small things set us off and bring an immediate negative reaction. Sometimes, we are unwittingly reacting in the present to a charged experience from the past. In this post, we explore 5 strategies for the next time you have a strong reaction at work to help you navigate to a more positive outcome.

Triggers are emotional habits, usually unconscious and automatic reactions. The Enneagram can be an invaluable tool to understand what is motivating our behavior and our triggers. Although all of us can be emotionally reactive, common triggers are experienced by each of the nine Enneagram types.

As we become more self-aware and truly see the motivation behind our ingrained patterns of behavior, we open the door to choice. Choosing more effective ways of engaging with others leads to more success and more fulfillment. Learn three ways to gain self-awareness in this post.

Catching yourself when you are beating yourself up is a powerful time-saving technique. Not only will this technique keep you productive, it will boost your optimism and forward momentum – even when challenges show up! Learn three ways how in this post.

A lot of us aren’t very aware of how we actually feel or why we react the way we do in charged situations. Better understanding your emotions allows you to manage emotions instead of being controlled by them.  Learn four ways to unhook yourself.

Too much of a “bias for action” can lead to a fair amount of clean-up work later.  In fact, low impulse control can derail otherwise successful career. The good news is impulse control is a muscle every leader can strengthen. 

The Enneagram personality system explains the motivation behind a lot of unconscious behaviors. Here are a few common challenges you may face when starting down the path:

Leaders sometimes tell me stories of their “challenging” colleagues and ask for advice for handling them. Leaders are often surprised when I suggest they start by looking at themselves.  Hoping another person will change is not an effective plan.  Real change starts with us trying a different lens. Here’s why…

A lot of us are not that aware of how we actually feel or why we react the way we do in many situations. Emotional self-awareness, the ability to understand what we are feeling and why we are feeling that way, is the foundation of emotional intelligence. The good news is that it’s never too late to learn how to recognize and manage emotions.

Self-awareness leads to better performance, influence, and authenticity. One tool we use to jumpstart self-awareness is a personality system called the Enneagram (ennea is Greek for nine and gram means figure or model).  The Enneagram describes nine different ways people think, feel, and behave and sheds light on what is actually motivating our behavior most of the time.  

We’ve all had those moments that test our self-awareness. You know the one where someone says something about how they see you – either directly or through 360 feedback – and it just doesn’t match your self-image. “That’s not right – I don’t see myself that way!” We experience a fair amount of denial, but on some level, we fear the feedback might be true.

Leaders will often ask us, “How can I change my behavior?”  Or they ask us something which sounds like, “Do I really want to change behaviors that work for me?”  To change a behavior, we have to first see it and understand what works about it and what doesn’t.

Few things are more important to leadership than self-awareness. Self-awareness reveals what works and what does not work for us and helps us understand where we can add value and feel fulfilled. Self-awareness is also the foundation of emotional intelligence, which is essential to engaging others and fostering teamwork. The benefits of self-awareness are significant!